Having a merry of a time at The Merrywell

By the end of the week and following a day of trekking back and forth around town in sweltering weather, 38C, I was definitely thinking about a nice, ice cold beverage when Friday drew to a slow close. Derek and I decided to treat ourselves and visit The Merrywell pub located within the Crown, just outside of Perth city.

As we wandered into the Merrywell, we were pleasantly surprised to find we had our pick of seats. It was a tad early at 4pm but with a 5am start for the both of us looming on Saturday, we weren’t altogether keen for a super late evening. We took our seats in the alfresco area underneath an olive tree, it was definitely a nice setting to enjoy the relaxed atmosphere around us. It was shaping up to be one of those deadly still evenings, the sky a little pink and not a rustle of the cool breeze. Summer has well and truly sailed into Perth!

The food menu looked good and generated a little alot of excitement from Derek. With the number of dude food dishes it’s definitely not hard to figure out why! Grant MacPherson and Sammy DeMarco are the two chefs/ founding partners behind the Merrywell. Diners can feast on their decades of experience in the American restaurant scene with grilled cuban mojo pork chops or fried chicken and jalapeno corn waffles. The D-Man & G-Mac BLT sounded flipping amazing – porchetta, pork belly, pancetta, egg, rocket, feta, tomato, bacon aioli, bacon bread and onion rings, it makes me want to loosen my belt already! I genuinely start to wonder if the Merrywell could be the haute cuisine of dude food?

First up was that ice cold drink I was thinking about. The sparkling drinks menu was a little disappointing, falling short of a local West Australian sparkling. The choices included a sparkling rose from Tasmania, Prosecco from Italy, the Henschke Blanc de Noir from Adelaide was $19.00 a glass and the Moet wasn’t any cheaper at $26.00 a glass! I ended up selecting the cheapest glass, $10.00 for a low end French champagne. Such a shame, but oh well, there is the La Place La Vie, a champagne lounge, nearby. Derek quenched his thirst with a Dutch Heineken beer.

Veuve D’Argent Brut ($10.00) and Heineken

We end up ordering two dishes from the share plates section of the menu.

The lollipop buffalo wings was the first dish to arrive to the table. The meaty wings covered in a tomato based hot sauce were tender and soft, the meat falling away from the bone with each bite. The sauce was not too spicy which I thought was a good thing. The wings are cut in a way that you can hold them like a lollipop, except they don’t last as long as a lollipop! A swift dunk into the blue cheese fondue was superb, sauce upon sauce. If you are not particularly fond of blue cheese, I wouldn’t strike this dish aside altogether. The fondue contains a mild flavour of what is typically a pungent in your face tasting cheese. The dish came with celery sticks tucked next to the wings but unfortunately they were limp and warm. It would have been better if they were served in a separate dish to avoid this or maybe I am just being picky and prefer cold crunchy celery sticks more.

Lollipop Buffalo Wings $21.00

The BBQ duck sloppy joes sounded intriguing, a blend of Asian and American cuisine – hello fusion! The words bao buns and Sriracha had won us both over. Shredded carrot, cabbage and duck covered in Sriracha hot sauce, and tucked into three soft and fluffy steamed buns. This dish was delicious.

BBQ Duck Sloppy Joes 3 pc $21.00

Friday work drinks is the customary tradition for the end of the working week here in Perth, be it, gathering around in the office or moving to a bar down the road or in town. We were having such a great time, we were oblivious to the pub filling up and when our drinks were cleared, we came to realise our table was prime real estate for a Friday night, when two different couples headed our way as we got up to leave. I didn’t look back to see who won…

You do need to place your food and drink orders at the bar and walk your drinks back to the table, food will be delivered. The prices of food and drinks is quite high, yes Perth prices but I guess the difference is, with good food and efficient service, we will most likely return albeit not regularly. One thing worth mentioning – The Merrywell won a Casual Pub Dining Award (jointly with the Norfolk Hotel in Fremantle) at the 2014AHA-Aon Hotel and Hospitality Awards for Excellence and it definitely has that casual pub atmosphere.

Overall, we had a merry of a time unwinding at the Merrywell and the location inside the Crown means there is plenty to do afterwards whether it be placing a bet on the roulette table or dessert from Nobu.